TEHRAN –The administration of the late President Ebrahim Raisi paid 1.57 trillion rials (almost $2.7 billion) as marriage loans by the end of the past Iranian calendar year (March 19), marking an increase of 64 percent since the administration took office in August 2021.

A total of 480,000 marriages were registered in the same period, and about 85 percent of the couples have received marriage loans, IRNA reported.

From the beginning of the current year until April 29, the Central Bank paid 56.38 trillion rials (almost $94 million) in wedding and childbearing loans.

Some 40.84 trillion rials (about $68 million) were granted to the applicants for wedding loans, an increase of 28 percent compared to the same period last year, IRNA quoted Mehdi Sahabi, an official with the Central Bank, as saying.

The Central Bank also paid a total of 15.54 trillion rials (roughly $26 million) to families in childbearing loans, showing a 23 percent rise year on year.

Protecting the youth

On January 28, late President Ebrahim Raisi urged relevant bodies to take action to protect the youth of the country.

The official told organizations that they can use their facilities and capacities to implement the law to protect the youth.

He pointed to the important role of cultural development in encouraging people to have children, saying that the wrong cultural development in recent decades has been one of the most important reasons for the decrease in the country's population growth.

To address this issue, he called on national media, print and digital media, education, and higher education centers, and advertising agencies to work together to promote positive cultural messages about family planning.

MT/MG